Windows 8.1 Tips: How to Configure Automatic App Updates

You might have noticed few changes including the layout of the Windows Store when you upgraded from Windows 8 to Windows 8.1. And there are few hidden changes which are not related to look and feel of the OS or the Apps. Windows Store has one hidden change, which is how it handles the App Updates. In Windows 8, it shows the number of updates available on the Live Tile of Windows Store. But Windows 8.1, if you haven’t done anything leaving it to defaults, it never shows any updates and you may be wondering what has happened to favorite app’s update, for which you read somewhere that it has been updated and Store Tile is not showing anything. Don’t worry, the change here Microsoft hid is how it handled App updates. By default, it updates the Apps silently for you and that’s why you don’t see that information on your tile. But you could change this behavior. For that you have to do is, just open the Windows Store App. Now open the Charms/Settings and click on App updates. Check the left side image. Once you click on App updates, the App Updates screen of Windows Store gets open. Look at the right image. In that one look at the first toggle button. By default that gets set to automatic updates. You could configure the way you would like to.

If you notice, there is a button for Sync licenses in the App updates screen, the bottom button. It is to sync the licenses for the apps you have purchased from the Windows Store and it will sync the license and make the app(s) up to date licensed if it has (they have) missed. Normally this happens if one of your machine is out of sync with rest of your Windows 8 machines or not up to date. If the app you’ve bought is out of sync, it may not work or its live tile information may not properly behave. And we may not like that behavior. It is good to sync the app licenses. I have couple of tablets, which my kids use while we are on road and they may not get attention until we start driving. This button helps in those scenarios.